Abstract

Fundamental frequency difference limens (F0DLs) were measured for a target harmonic complex tone with nominal fundamental frequency (F0) of 200 Hz, in the presence and absence of a harmonic masker with overlapping spectrum. The F0 of the masker was 0, ±3, or ±6 semitones relative to 200 Hz. The stimuli were bandpass filtered into three regions: 0–1000 Hz (low, L), 1600–2400 Hz (medium, M), and 2800–3600 Hz (high, H), and a background noise was used to mask combination tones and to limit the audibility of components falling on the filter skirts. The components of the target or masker started either in cosine or random phase. Generally, the effect of F0 difference between target and masker was small. For the target alone, F0DLs were larger for random than cosine phase for region H. For the target plus masker, F0DLs were larger when the target had random phase than cosine phase for regions M and H. F0DLs increased with increasing center frequency of the bandpass filter.Modeling using excitation patterns and “summary autocorrelation” and “stabilized auditory image” models suggested that use of temporal fine structure information can account for the small F0DLs obtained when harmonics are barely, if at all, resolved.

Received 28 July 2011Revised 07 May 2012Accepted 09 May 2012Published online 10 July 2012

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by the MRC (UK), grant number G0701870. We thank Tim Ives for help in using the AIM-MAT modelling platform. We also thank Laurent Demany, Chris Plack, and three anonymous reviewers for forthright and very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

[Methods or devices for transmitting, conducting or
directing sound in general; Methods or devices for protecting against, or for damping,
noise or other acoustic waves in general, Methods or devices for transmitting, conducting or directing sound in general; Methods or devices for protecting against, or for damping, noise or other acoustic waves in general]